Back Home in the Good Ol' U.S.A.

Well, I returned from Europe and it feels great to be back. Not that Europe isn't great and all and not that I didn't have an amazing time, but there's nothing like home. I got back on Saturday and am currently trying to get over jet lag. I think I'm doing pretty good though. I jumped right back into work on Monday and I haven't been feeling too exceedingly tired.

Now to summarize my last few weeks in Europe. After we finished our language course in Uppsala, we took trains and buses and a ferry to get to Gotland, an old Viking island off the coast of Sweden (the journey there was quite an experience-barely finding our train stop in time, barely catching the bus, and hauling all of our luggage along with us through the whole thing).

The medieval city of Visby

Being there was a lot of fun. I have been telling people that it was my favorite part of the trip 'cause even though I am not sure that it is (as many know I have a very hard time deciding favorites), it was tons of fun. We went to several different beaches and got to relax in addition to seeing really interesting old viking churches and visiting with a famous Swedish artist and his wife.

Arch in Visby

After Gotland we went back to Stockholm and visited some more museums, Drottningholm Palace, and went to an opera and play. Drottningholm Palace has amazing gardens which are modeled after the gardens at the Palace of Versailles.

We left Stockholm on Monday and caught a train to Malmö, a city in southern Sweden. While we were there we visited the Lund Cathedral which was built in 1080. It was really interesting.

Lund Cathedral

We even got to see the astronomical clock chime (figures circling and organ playing; really neat) and watched a church play that was performed right inside the church. We also visited the university in Lund which was pretty cool. I also got to visit the church site where my great, great, great-grandmother was christened.

On Wednesday we took a train across the bridge to Copenhagen. In Copenhagen we went to some more museums and went on a sight-seeing walk through the city that took us to tons of churches including the one with the original Christus, a citadel, the Little Mermaid, and several other things.

Kristina, Me, Brittany, Madeleine, and Julie--Fredriksborg Castle

Christus in Vor Frue Kirke in Copenhagen, Denmark

Little Mermaid--those dang girls would not move

Brittany and I--Eating Danishes in Denmark

Marie-Laure, Julie, Madeleine, Brittany and I--Round Tower

On Saturday morning I took a bus to the airport and after a long day of flights and lay-overs I finally got home at 11 that night. It is good to be back.

View of Denmark from the airplane